Exploring art events in and around NYC

September 2011

09/26/2011

David Byrne seems to do it all -- music, writing, art, filmmaking -- and he does it all very well, indeed. Following up his 2008 Creative Time-commissioned installation, Playing the Building, The Pace Gallery presents Tight Spot, Byrne's site-specific art installation under the High Line at 508 West 25th Street.

Consisting of a 48 x 20 foot inflatable globe, reminiscent of the ones from elementary school days, the representation of the planet is overblown and crammed snugly under the High Line bridge, warping the pastel, plasticky orb. Emanating from the center of the malformed earth is a low-frequency vibration that Byrne created using his own voice, tweaking and distorting it to make it unrecognizable and give it an otherworldly, sonic sort of vibe. The mysterious, warbling sounds can be heard around the block and from the High Line above, luring visitors to the installation.

Always proving to be daring and innovative, the former RISD student, frontman of Talking Heads, and author of Bicycle Diaries (and designer of bicycle racks around NYC and Brooklyn), Byrne has a knack for creating exciting, original, and intelligent visual and sensory work and experiences. Tight Spot is on view for two weeks only. Closes October 1st. Learn more at thepacegallery.com.

09/19/2011

Summer is over, the Fall season has begun, and my slacktitude must be kept in check. I kicked off my return to gallery hopping with a pair of Nick Cave exhibits...

Chicago-based artist Nick Cave has two concurrent exhibits in Chelsea showing groups of his signature Soundsuits. Ever-After is on view at Jack Shainman Gallery and For Nowis on display at Mary Boone Gallery. Cave's Soundsuits are ornate, alien-like sculptural forms based on the artist's own figure. The life-size, fully concealing suits camouflage a wearer's body, "masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender, and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment," (from the show's press release).

For the first time in Ever-After, some of Cave's Soundsuits "interact within subtly narrative tableaux." The narratives connect viewers to "a social consciousness, summoning the echoes and voices which Cave believes have been paralyzed to silence and subjected to unfair altercations in an often hostile society." Upon entering the gallery, visitors are greeted by the work Mating Season, a line of nine tall, blonde, hirsute, bunny-like creatures "suggesting a sublime play of fornication, placed in multiple positions." In the installation Speak Louder, a group of seven black, glittering figures with giant, disk-like faces are conjoined by various swathes of fabric. The thousands of black buttons that cover the figures represent "the reflection of a memory, a thought, and the inheritance of personal identity." As the show's press release states, the overall effect examines "consciousness, contemplation, and deep exploration," much different themes from the exhibition at Mary Boone which "celebrates exuberance, chaos, and color."

As you'll see from my pics below, Cave's characters in the exhibit For Now, on view at Mary Boone Gallery, appear a bit more playful and celebratory, decked out in bright colors, fun fur, stuffed animals, sock monkeys, dollies, birdies, twigs, pipe cleaners, noise-makers, and repurposed, Cosby-worthy sweaters. Cave vivaciously describes the installation as a "psychedelic, functified freak show that is an accumulation of the decades from the perspective of voodoo woo-loo." The wild, lively, colorful bunch bring a lively burst of energy to the white, airy space.